Damkina

The Fall of Sebesh Bluearrow

When Sebesh Bluearrow became White Overlord his house had ruled Damkina for many generations. Unlike his father, a famous paladin, Sebesh did not have a robust physique and after training as a paladin turned his attention to the magic arts. Many had doubts about Sebesh succeeding his father but he was a conscientious Overlord who often worked long into the night trying to solve the City's problems. After a few years the doubts resurfaced but now his critics feigned pity for Sebesh saying that the burdens of office were overwhelming him. In truth Sebesh was somewhat introverted and the problems of the city (poor harvests, barbarians on the borders and an empty treasury) were beginning to mount up.

To disarm his detractors therefore Sebesh announced a prize of much gold for any who could come forward and produce a plan for the betterment of Damkina. This worked well for there were no obvious solutions to the City's problems and his critics fell silent but a travelling wizard named Zarken approached the Overlord at this time and in due course became his trusted counsellor. Many of Daminkina's minor headaches were fixed over the next few years including the absence of burial plots in the city which was solved by Sebesh starting a new cemetry on Bluearrow lands on the shore of the Vast Lake. The popularity of Sebesh in the City grew and even the harvests improved. Relations with the local barbarian and hobgoblin tribes continued to deteriorate, however, and in the fifteenth year of Sebesh's rule an alliance of the local tribes formed an army to overturn Damkina's rule of the lands around the Vast Lake.

The City Guard was small but the nobles rallied round Sebesh particularly as he had sent inflammatory messages to the barbarians to ensure that the first battles would be fought on his estate. When the army of Damkina met the barbarians on the shores of the lake, however, they saw they were greatly outnumbered and the fate of the battle could not be predicted. The barbarians advanced but were suddenly outflanked by a third force which drove them back in some disarray. Sebesh returned to the city acclaimed as a hero but it was short-lived. The paladins in his army had detected that the third force consisted of undead. Some were inclined to forgive the Overlord for his alliance with such an army but it became clear on investigation that the undead were actually former Damkina citizens who had been buried on Bluearrow lands. Even Sebesh's son turned against the Overlord and Sebesh was forced into exile with Zarkan. Sebastion his son renounced the Overlordship and swore that his descendants would be paladins for the next twenty generations in order remove the stain on the house. The fate of Sebesh is not recorded.

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